Sim Shalom (Max Janowski) Cantor Azi Schwartz of Park Avenue Synagogue

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Last updated 01 abril 2025

Sim Shalom (Max Janowski) Cantor Azi Schwartz of Park Avenue Synagogue

Max Janowski (1912-1991) was born in Berlin and is considered one of the most prolific and influential composers of synagogue music in the 20th century. Following his training as a pianist and organist and a brief period teaching music in Tokyo in the early 1930s, he immigrated to the U.S. in 1937. Janowski settled in Chicago in 1938, where he was appointed musical director of the KAM (Kehilat Anshey Ma’arav) Congregation, one of the flagships of the Reform movement in America. He composed more than 500 works, including choir and orchestra pieces, cantatas, and oratorios. His signature style is marked by simplicity, an appealing melody and straightforward solo lines. He was highly influenced by the modalities and harmonies embedded in Israeli folk and popular music, and composed songs to the words of Israeli poets. Avinu Malkeinu (sung by Barbara Streisand) and Sim Shalom, are among his first and most well-known compositions, which are now widely accepted and performed around the world. Sim Shalom has been a beloved and oftenperformed classic for years. Janowski’s setting of Sim Shalom is based on the same four-note ascending-descending motive that appears in Avinu Malkeinu. This four-note figuration also echoes the famous Israeli song Ali Be’er (Rise up, Well, words by Ch. N. Bialik, music by Sarah Levy Tanai). Sim Shalom’s melody winds around ancient musical mode prevalent in traditional and folk music. The unison refrain allows the congregation to take an active role in singing. The song was dedicated to the diplomat Ralph Johnson Bunche, who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for mediating in the 1947 Arab- Israeli conflict.